How an Enterprise Data Catalog Can Make or Break Your Enterprise
Time for a quick vocabulary quiz!
What does the word “enterprise” mean?
- an undertaking that is especially difficult, complicated, or risky
- a business organization
- readiness to engage in daring or difficult action
3…2…1…
If you’re still trying to decide between them, don’t bother. The answer (as you might have guessed) is… all of the above! If you’re feeling enterprising, try to say the following sentence five times fast:
The data team showed enterprise in spearheading the enterprise of integrating an enterprise data catalog.
Even if the definitions weren’t a surprise, their phraseology might have made you raise your eyebrows. Daring? Difficult? Risky? Had you wanted a career on the edge, you would have chosen espionage, not data science.
But enterprise data management fits those definitions better than you might expect… and enterprise data catalog tools are powerful simplifiers, risk reducers and mission supporters. Let’s take a closer look.
Enterprise Data: A Walk on the Wild Side
Back before agriculture was the next big thing (and for plenty of time after), much of humanity lived as hunter-gatherers.
Life as a hunter-gatherer was an enterprise.
It was difficult. It was risky. It was complicated.
There was never a guaranteed food supply. If you wanted to eat (read: live), you had to go out and look for it and hope it was there to be found.
This wasn’t a simple process. If it was meat you were after, you had to hunt it, track it, overcome it (and hope it wouldn’t kill you). If it was wild growing edibles, you had to search for it, harvest it, process it (and hope it wouldn’t kill you).
Tribal knowledge was (and still is, in hunter-gatherer cultures) key to success. If you don’t know how to prepare your cassava root, you’re likely to immediately or eventually die of cyanide poisoning.
Fast forward a few millennia. Life on the data team of an enterprise can bear a striking resemblance to life as a hunter-gatherer.
If you want your enterprise to succeed in our increasingly data-driven world, you need to make intelligent use of your enterprise data. CDOs find themselves increasingly responsible for active measures of enterprise success, like value creation and revenue generation, not just passive measures like risk mitigation.
But while the data to enable that success is all around you, swimming, crawling and running through your BI landscape, it’s up to you to hunt it, track it, harvest it, process it… and hope that you didn’t make some kind of enterprise-killing error in the process.
Tribal knowledge now, as then, is still key to your success. What is a given data asset good for — and what is it not good for? Is it accurate or corrupted? Do you have a way of preserving the wisdom of the experts and the experienced, so that you’re not flying blind once they have moved on and you no longer have direct access to them?
Enter the enterprise data catalog.
Benefits of a Data Catalog: The Heart of a Data-Driven Enterprise
An enterprise data catalog serves as the hub for everything data-related in your enterprise. It is the single source of truth, covering all the data assets in your BI landscape from original sources, to databases, to analytics and reporting. It contains all the information you need to work effectively with your data assets.
An enterprise data catalog worthy of its name also serves as a repository for your enterprise’s tribal knowledge regarding its data. In-catalog collaborative features enable your data users to ask questions of data owners, or stewards, or subject matter experts, with the communication recorded for the benefit of all future users. Ratings and reviews enable your users to tap the general knowledge of your enterprise’s “data tribe” in regards to any particular asset.
Really enterprising enterprise data catalogs are designed with intelligent capabilities that dynamically track which assets are used in conjunction with other assets, and for what they are most commonly used. The catalog then displays those usage patterns and suggestions for the benefit of other users, simplifying their decision-making process as regards usage of data assets and improving the results.
In short, an enterprise data catalog can:
- Speed up the process of finding and using the most appropriate data assets
- Decrease the risk of using sub-par data assets
- Facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing regarding data assets
- Serve as an accessible repository of enterprise tribal knowledge
Domesticate Your Data
As the enterprise data world matures, enterprise data management will (we hope) get a little less “wild.”
Finding the right data asset will be a matter of searching, harvesting and consuming — without lengthy preparatory processes or consultations with the “data elders.” Trial and error will be replaced by confident, accurate decisions.
Data governance will look more like caring for a well-organized, well-tended field than like scouring your territory for edible roots and berries.
As the heart around which the enterprise data society is organized, enterprise catalog management will have a large part in making this happen. Your data catalog software will connect with the disparate systems across your ecosystem of data sources, integrating them into a cohesive, easily managed whole. Even the data catalog itself will be constructed and managed through data catalog automation, with minimal reliance on manual input, keeping it up-to-date.
Be Enterprising
Society is changing. Enterprises are changing. The future is just a step away.
Implementing an enterprise data catalog with powerful data catalog features is a crucial part of future-proofing your enterprise’s data value strategy.
If you’re ready for enterprise data management to stop being so much of an “enterprise,” your time is a’coming.
